Infants and other incontinent individuals wear absorbent articles such as diapers, training pants and the like to absorb and retain urine and other body exudates. Absorbent articles function both to contain the discharged materials and to isolate these materials from the body of the wearer and from the wearer's garments and bed clothing. Disposable absorbent articles having many different basic designs are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. Re. 26,151 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,860,003. Typically, absorbent articles have an absorbent core for absorbing urine and other body exudates. Some of these articles tend to store absorbed fluids in a discharge region of the article. This discharge region is positioned generally within the portion of the article that fits in the wearer's crotch region when worn. A contributing factor to discomfort of the article to the wearer is the inability of the article to effectively transport discharged fluids.
In addition, many absorbent articles, such as catamenial pads, adult incontinent products, training pants and diapers, may leak upon repeated discharges of liquid, even if the prior liquid discharges have been effectively absorbed. Leakage due to repeated discharges is especially prevalent during the night, when users commonly experience multiple discharges before the absorbent article is changed. One factor that restricts the ability of many absorbent articles to handle multiple discharges of liquid is the absorbent core's limitations in transporting discharged liquid away from the discharge region once the absorbent capacity of that region has been reached. Thus, the overall performance of the absorbent article may be limited by the inability to transport the liquid to the farthest reaches of the absorbent core.
An example of an absorbent material capable of providing capillary liquid transport is open-celled polymeric foam. Appropriately made open-celled polymeric foams can provide features of capillary liquid acquisition, transport, and storage for use in high performance absorbent cores for absorbent articles such as diapers. Shaped or contoured absorbent cores made from such open-celled foam materials are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,147,345. The '345 patent's absorbent core includes both a liquid acquisition/distribution member and a liquid storage/redistribution member. The liquid acquisition/distribution member is positioned within the absorbent article in such a way as to receive or contact aqueous bodily liquid which has been discharged into the absorbent article by the wearer of the article. The liquid storage/redistribution member, in turn, is positioned within the article to be in capillary liquid communication with the liquid acquisition/distribution member.
Absorbent cores providing the absorbent characteristics of the '345 patent in an exemplary multi-piece configuration are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,906,602, which describes shaped absorbent cores having a front panel and a back panel in capillary liquid communication with a center section. The center section includes material generally suitable for liquid acquisition/distribution, while the front and back panels include material generally suitable for liquid storage/redistribution.
Despite advances in absorbent articles and in liquid handling absorbent core materials, absorbent articles having multiple absorbent core components as well as those having unitary absorbent cores generally remain designed for single use wear. Once the storage/redistribution member is saturated with bodily discharges, such as urine, the entire absorbent article is generally discarded and replaced. Often parts of the absorbent article are still usable, and except for being unitary with the absorbent core, these parts could be used further. In addition to the added cost and waste associated with discarding reusable materials, it is often inconvenient to remove and replace the entire absorbent article when absorbent core components are saturated.
Absorbent articles having removable absorbent inserts are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,761, which discloses a disposable absorbent insert for use inside an over-garment such as a conventional reusable diaper, or a disposable diaper. Once the absorbent insert becomes saturated it may be removed and discarded. The absorbent article may then be reused with a fresh absorbent insert. However, because the absorbent insert is removable only from the body side of the article, the absorbent article is removed from the wearer in order to remove the insert. Therefore, the removal of the absorbent insert is often inconvenient and time consuming.
It would be advantageous to provide an absorbent article that provides improved fit and wearer comfort, even after the article is wetted with body fluids, such as by reducing the relative amount of fluid retained in the article's crotch region. It would be further advantageous to provide an absorbent article which has reduced bulk in the crotch region in both the dry and wet states. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an absorbent article having an openable chassis pocket for receiving a replaceable absorbent core component wherein the replaceable absorbent core component can be replaced without having to remove the absorbent article from the wearer. It would also be advantageous to provide a method of manufacturing such an absorbent article.